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So, I want to teach you how to paint what you see.

I've painted this silver cup here on a table.

This is the finished painting

I'm going to walk you through, from beginning to end.

If you haven't seen the tutorials about

how to draw in proportion or how to mix colors,

you should watch those before you watch this one.

One thing I should make clear,

this is not a method that you necessarily will use for the rest of your life.

This is a method for learning how to paint

and learning how to see,

and learning how to paint what you see.

So, it's very strict and structured,

but it's something that is primarily a way for you to learn how to paint.

Once you've done this,

and painted several paintings using this method,

then you can go from there and do anything you want with it.

Even modern art, or whatever.

It's just a very structured way

to paint exactly what you see in front of you.

I'm going to paint this little silver cup

sitting here on this table.

I already have all my colors laid out

and I'm ready to go.

I'm going to play with these colors

most definitely as I paint,

but I've already premixed the basic colors of

the silver cup, and then this is the table.

And this is the cloth, and the background,

which is just black

and this is only the one step.

That's all there is to it.

We're going to start with the tea cup, obviously.

That's the only object in here.

The first thing I always do, before I paint anything,

is paint some background around it.

So it really is important,

and it's something that a lot of people skip,

but if you put just a little bit of background

around your object, it really helps you

to see these colors on the edge.

Otherwise, if you don't paint black,

or the very dark color that's in here,

then when you lay this in,

it may look right to you, but it's...

It just helps you to see it.

So, I always paint some background in.

It also helps you to adjust your line,

if you need to bump this line that way, or that way.

If you don't have any background,

you can't bump it that way,

you can only bump it this way.

So, very first thing —

and I'll come back into the background after I paint it —

I'm going to paint a little line

just to create a border.

That's all I care about.

It doesn't even have to be exact.

The colors don't have to be perfect.

I just try to get them close.

Then, when I come back and paint this,

and if this was a complicated still life,

this would be even more true,

where if I painted a little background

around my teacup — or rather, my silver cup

and it dried, that's fine.

I can come back in with the background

and blend into the little bit of background

that's already around the teacup.

As opposed to having this teacup sit here

and be dry on this canvas, with no border,

and then you come in, and you hit a real hard line there.

It's just always easier.

The very first thing is to figure out

what color is around the teacup.

I know that this is black.

I can check it with my color checker, if I need to.

Always check, check, check.

I'm not going to check nearly as much as you should.

I've been painting for a long time,

and I have a sense about it.

In fact, I already know.

I've checked the back color, but I can see that it's going to be black.

I'm just going to pick up a clean brush.

Make sure your brush doesn't have any white in it,

because it will pollute your black.

Especially this. This is just black, black.

I'll put a little background,

or rather, a little bit of...

...and this is just going to go off the end here...

In other words, it just keeps going,

but I'm not going to worry about that.

It comes down,

and here's the way to check this,

this is how you always check

to see where something goes.

Doesn't matter what you're painting.

Put some paint on my color checker,

and then what I'm going to do

is I want to determine...

See, I think I painted this down way too far.

So, I'm going to have to wipe it up.

I'll go ahead and do that.

Here's how you check where a color goes.

Hold out your color checker,

and as I move it down,

I ask myself, "When does the color change?"

And it's just right off...

It stops becoming black paint right at the point

where this handle is.

So, I'll just go right across.

I made a mental note.

How far down does the black go?

It stops right there.

Make a mental note with your color checker.

Move it down, and you're asking yourself, "When...

Oh, right there," and then you make a mental note

where that is on your cup.

It's right about to that point in the handle.

I always over-paint, just a little bit.

In other words,

when I checked with my color checker,

this color only came down to maybe about there.

But I'm going to go just slightly beyond that,

knowing that I'm going to take this color

and blend it into it a little bit.

I always over-paint each step,

and this goes for when I'm painting the silver cup.

Every little step that I lay in,

I over-paint just slightly where it belongs,

knowing that when I come in with the next step,

I'm going to bump it back a little bit.

I came way too far down on that.

OK. So, that goes for the table.

And then cloth in the background...

...is somewhere between black and my first step.

This actually represents

the very lightest part of the fabric.

I don't want to pollute my black brush.

I'm going to pick up a new brush,

because I like to keep this one just for black paint.

I will pick up some of this

very lightest color in the fabric.

Believe it or not,

this is the lightest color.

Let me just look at it again.

Yeah, and that's lighter than...

This is the very lightest part of the fabric,

and black is darker than the main part,

so I'm just going to mix some of this together with black

and get the right value.

That's why you don't have to mix every little step,

because you can just mix steps together

to create new steps.

This is just the perfect color for

right around the cup.

I mean just pretty much everywhere.

Close enough.

We can put the texture that's in the fabric in afterwards.

Really, I'm just trying to create a border around my silver cup.

Now I just need the next step on the table.

I'll go ahead and mix up some of that,

or just check my step here.

This may be what I want.

It almost jumps a step.

So, I'll take just a line of this.

Since I mixed it, I'll just put a little bit in there.

This is the next step in the table.

Again, I'm not going to worry about painting the whole table.

I'm going to get enough just to create a border around the shadow here.

Let me go ahead and jump a step

and see where this next color goes.

Every time I paint,

I hold it out, and I ask myself,

"How high up does this go?"

"How far down does it go?"

"How far left does it go? How far to the right?"

You're just investigating.

And this color really exists all around.

At least, the right side.

And then right in the front, it gets even lighter.

So, this just goes

to about there.

And all in here.

Then it gets even brighter over here,

so I don't want to go too far.

OK. So now,

the front part gets a little bit lighter.

This goes pretty much everywhere...

Well, it goes right in here.

It gets even lighter right in this part.

But, I'm going to put just a little bit of it

up against the shadow.

And then, the very front part

gets even lighter.

Now, I'll start on the silver cup.

I'm going to start with the very darkest color,

which is black, and paint that in first.

Again, I've got this brush that I only keep black in.

I'll pick up some fresh black paint

and put some on my color checker,

and I'm going to do the same thing.

I'm going to ask myself, "Where does this color belong?"

and make mental notes.

I hold out black,

and I'm asking myself, "Where do I see black?"

Anything that is darker than black...

This is real important because it's very common.

If I look in the very darkest shadow

on the silver cup, right in here,

and I compare it to black,

the silver cup's black is even blacker

than my black paint.

In that case, I just paint it black.

That's just the limitation of paint.

The darkest we can get is black.

But in real life, things get even darker than black.

But that's OK. It all works out, and looks good.

The rule is:

If it is darker than black paint —

if what I see there is even darker than black paint —

I just paint it black.

Simple as that.

Investigate all the places

that are black, or darker than black.

The only places I really see

are just in here,

a little touch in there,

and then the shadow underneath.

So, I'll start with that.

See, I'm pushing it the other way.

That's why I like to have a little background.

But don't blend this black too much into this color,

or you'll end up with some

new color that doesn't belong there.

If at any point you need to pull out

your proportional divider, and re-check yourself,

I would encourage you to do that.

Don't just trust your lines.

Things get bumped around and moved,

so always...

It's easy to pull out your proportional divider

and re-check your lines.

OK, that's the shadow.

Now I'm just going to fill in

everywhere else that I see it goes.

I'm going to over-paint the black just a little bit.

I mean I'm going to paint it a little bit bigger than it needs to be,

because I know that when I come in with my next step,